For amusement:
I just had the opportunity to have a chat with Rakuten about their policies regarding the refusal of service to some residents of Taiwan 
Their logic was: because they don’t provide service to Taiwanese children (<20) there is no discrimination present.
At least something to make me laugh
I went to a bank two weeks back with a question that I wanted them to look into.
They asked for passport.
I said that I didn’t have it but the number was on my APRC.
Clerk said that she thought they needed my actual passport.
I asked what she could copy from it. She said…just the number. Then she asked if I had my NHI card or some other form of Taiwan ID and said she could use that instead.
When I opened my regular bank account at Taishin bank 2-3 years ago the clerk asked me to show her my american tax number for the ITIN(?) document Americans have to fill out worldwide. Mind you I am German and the lady had already scanned my German passport and was actually holding it in her hand while asking me that.
After I pointed out that I am German and don’t have to fill out this form she kept insisting that she needs the necessary number.
I showed her on the paper she handed to me that it was for Americans only, as stated on the document.
She kept going on and on that she needs this number and if I don’t have a suitable number for her.
After discussing for 5-10 minutes I took out my German drivers license which has its own Number and she was happy to fill out the document with that number.
Still waiting for the IRS to come after me, especially since I exchanged my German drivers license to a Taiwanese one and the original one got send back to Germany.
I filled out a similar document - but they didn’t ask for an American, but for my German tax id. Even my bank in Germany asked for my Taiwanese tax id after letting them know about my move abroad. Maybe the bank just handed you the wrong form at that time.
When I opened my other bank account at SCSB I didn’t have to fill out either an american or german tax form. I have never heard of Germans having to provide Tax ID abroad. Is there any regulation for this?
There is something called AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Information) which applies to many countries, but not to the US. FATCA applies only to the US, but not to other countries. In practice, banks (at least in Europe) ask for the relevant information using a single form.
Countries participating in AEOI: https://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/AEOI-commitments.pdf
Germany is definitely on that list - Taiwan does not seem to be on it, though. Not sure if banks here just voluntarily participate.
They asked me for my tax ID number in India when i opened an account here. Same thing - financial info sharing.
https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=Y0040255
I’m 100% sure the bank and employees have no idea that exists. Why else would they ask me to fill out a form for Americans and especially accept my drivers license number on that form. Doesn’t make sense.
But interesting to see the document, thanks for looking it up!
Exact same thing happened to me 3 months ago, there was a form that said if you are a resident for tax purposes in the USA please write number, I spent 20 minutes trying to explain that I haven’t even set foot in North America, and that for tax purposes I am a resident of Taiwan! In the end I had to sign a declaration stating I have never been a tax resident of USA. I hope I don’t need to go back anytime soon!
Edit: forgot to add, I was talking to an Aussie friend of mine after it happened and he just wrote 00000000 for the USA number and they didn’t even question it, shows how much they know what they are doing.
The problem isn’t the policy. The problem is banks not training their staff on how to handle this. I could guess that Taiwanese citizens are not even questioned. Despite many potentially being tax residents. I could be that the government and the banks are NOT meeting their reporting requirements and make up with it by forcing good for nothing foreigners into false declarations.
If you aren’t an American and have uprooted your life to live in Taiwan, lived here for at least 7 months… then there’s a 99% chance you are NOT a tax resident of any other place than Taiwan. YET. I bet most of these people are being fooled by the ignorant bank tellers into signing false declarations.
I am a citizen, and only the sample of one, but at every financial institution I have dealt with here, I have had to disclose whether I was a US tax payer. My insurance company had to send someone to meet me at my apartment to fill out the form because she did not ask while I was at their office (I was only there to change my mailing address) and the omission was caught by her supervisor. So, financial institutions here do take FATCA compliance seriously based on my experiences.
They will ask at the start but won’t really check in general unless it just so happens a supervisor spots something. (unlikely)
Exactly… The general staff don’t notice these things at all and think they only apply to foreigners. Heck… A German would be forced to fill out a FATCA form… Yet you only have to because a supervisor managed to spot an error.
Also, they tend to take the laws and training for FATCA and apply them directly to CRS and confuse the two as being exactly the same… Take for example myself. They will want my Australian Tax File number despite the Australian tax office confirming and writing a letter stating that I don’t need to supply it and to “please stop asking for it.”
Can confirm. Am German and had to fill out FATCA form. After 20 minutes of trying to explain that I dont have to fill it out I simply put my German Drivers License Number on the paper which is complete nonsense but the bank teller was happy and I could open my account.
What I’d be worried about is the US government getting weird data that the teller falsified (your license) and then later they go into an investigation thinking you are an American citizen.
Obviously you would be able to clear it up but it would definitely be a PITA
That’s why I gave my real German tax ID to ESUN when I first opened a bank account with them (as I had just moved to Taiwan, I wasn’t actually sure if I would still count as a German tax payer for the reminder of the year). In that scenario, I don’t see much potential harm for me - of course, maybe ESUN will send information about my bank accounts to the German tax authorities - but if they check my file, they can see that I no longer live in Germany.
But filling out some form as if you were a US person in regards for taxation - I feel that could be a really bad idea (heck, I even had to fill out a W-8BEN for for my bank in Germany after moving to Taiwan in order to buy US stocks… - not sure what would happen if the US authorities receive a FACTA form with the same name and address on it from a bank in Taiwan. I would assume that could lead to an unpleasant surprise when travelling to the US…)
not really, regulation permits and and actually specifically says residents in Taiwan are alike, no distinctions between citizen and non citizen. However, the issue is enforcement of the regulation.
Financial providers can’t just be bothered to develop the online tool to search with NIA for the genuinity of the ARCs, and the regulator can’t be asked to enforce the rules, since “it is the choice of the private company to support it or not…”
All part of the same institutionalised racist system. Should all hang their heads in shame. Complain to the government in any department and they don’t care about racist discrimination against foreigners. In fact… the literally consist off it, breathe in it, swim in it, moulded by discrimination.
